When they open the bonnet, the dumbfounded staff find there is no engine – before they investigate under the car, probe in the boot and even poke about in the back seats.

In an echo of that perfect prank, the new Tesla Model S sits in a showroom in the Westfield shopping centre in west London with its bonnet wide open for all to see. It is immaculately empty and instead serves as a boot. Open the (other) boot and you’ll find space for two extra seats.

It’s what you get when your car runs on a battery hidden within the chassis. While giving a tour of the vehicle, Tesla’s UK director Georg Ell told Metro: ‘We don’t consider ourselves to be an automotive company. We’re a tech company that builds cars.’

Indeed, one reviewer described his experience inside the Model S as a bit like ‘driving a smartphone’.

Tesla’s ambitions are vast, including plans to eventually kill off the conventional car. As Ell explained: ‘The whole reason we did any of this is to prove to internal combustion engine manufacturers that an electric car could be beautiful, safe, desirable and sell successfully and profitably.’ Oh, and tackle global warming, poor air quality and noise pollution in the process.

With a new age of motoring, as with all revolutions, comes a fresh set of jargon.

So you’d better start brushing up on the lingo. ‘Range anxiety’ was coined in 1997 to describe the main obstacle to take-up of electric vehicles: the fear that a car will run out of juice before it reaches its destination (The Norwegian equivalent, ‘rekkeviddeangst’, was deemed the country’s second most important ‘word of the year’ in 2013 – Norway has made the Model S its bestselling car in any class ever).

To cure the anxiety, there are ‘electric superhighways’ – essentially motorways, but with charging points installed at service stations. The fact that the technology is seeping into our language is significant. However, the waging of not one but two international wars to dominate the industry shows the race is really hotting up.

Grudge match number one is Elon Musk v Lu Guanqiu. Musk is the South African-born co-founder of PayPal, who is using his billions to send people into space – and to make electric cars mainstream through Tesla. He is also the British government’s ‘electric car tsar’ and is said to be the inspiration behind the billionaire playboy hero of the Iron Man films, Tony Stark.

Squaring up against Musk is Chinese billionaire Lu, the chairman and founder of Wanxiang Group, China’s largest car parts maker, who plans to manufacture electric cars in the US and then in China.

‘I’ll put every cent into making electric vehicles. I’ll burn as much cash as it takes to succeed, or until Wanxiang goes bust,’ Lu said recently, adding that his son and grandson will take up the fight after him.

The second battle is being waged on British soil. Green energy company Ecotricity was supposed to be working with Tesla to roll out the US firm’s ‘superchargers’ within its national network.

That was until it received what it describes as a ‘threatening and dark email’ that amounted to ‘a declaration of war’. Musk said the relationship was terminated because of Ecotricity’s ‘outrageous demands’.

But, describing ‘my battle with Iron Man’, Ecotricity owner Dale Vince told Metro: ‘We’re in a process that will see us end up in court suing Tesla for breaches of our non-disclosure agreement.’

Ecotricity has taken out a High Court injunction in a bid to prevent Tesla from using information it may have gathered during their brief partnership.
It claims an email sent in error from Tesla detailed proposals to take over the British company’s charging sites.

Asked if the legal action will delay Tesla’s roll-out of its charging network, Ell said. ‘Absolutely not. Ecotricity are just a supplier and it didn’t work out.’
In a bold move, Musk announced last week that Tesla will give other companies access to its patents and won’t sue those that use them. He said he wanted to break down barriers to the growth of electric vehicles that could be caused my intellectual property issues.

Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said: ‘The time for electric cars might well be coming, but it is not here yet. More than three years after the government launched its plug-in car grant scheme, you are still as likely to see a Ferrari on the road as a battery-powered vehicle.

‘The row between Tesla and Ecotricity throws light on a fundamental problem. Petrol and diesel cars are very quick to refuel. Electric cars are not.

‘Ironically, they could eventually become victims of their own success with drivers fighting over access to limited numbers of charging points. Already there have been reports of plug-rage in the US.’